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C99 Supercollider Contact Beam
The C99 Supercollider Contact Beam, also referred simply as the Contact Beam, is an engineering tool designed to pound and soften hard, raw minerals into smaller pieces. It is described as part jackhammer, part energy wrecking ball. Sometimes miners need to pound a stubborn rock into pieces, softening it so it can be extracted in different ways. That's where a C99 Supercollider Contact Beam comes in. Part jackhammer and part energy wrecking ball, the tool is extremely powerful in short range circumstances. Design Details Like the Force Gun, the Contact Beam is an energy projector tool that utilises kinetic energy. The Contact Beam utilises three blue laser reticules as its firing indicator, similar to that of the Plasma Cutter, albeit slightly narrower. The Contact Beam functions as an equivalent to a sniper rifle due to its high damage and range, like the Force Gun relating to a shotgun. To operate to its actual purpose, the Contact Beam needs to be charged for a brief period. When fully charged and fired, the Contact Beam delivers a huge kinetic discharge that obliterates anything it comes into contact. As such, the weapon trades speed and precision for damage. The discharge is very powerful to the point where most Necromorphs can be killed by one shot. If not charged, the Contact Beam acts as a simple short-range weapon. The Contact Beam's secondary fire acts much like the Pulse Rifle's where it unleashes a small radial ground-based shockwave that knocks objects away from the wielder. Ammunition Ammunition for the Contact Beam can be purchased in the Store for 2,000 credits for one shot. Combat Tips * The Contact Beam is one of the most powerful and difficult weapons to wield in the Dead Space. The primary fire takes one second (when not fully upgraded) to completely charge up while the primary fire button is held down. Once mastered, the Contact Beam can be deadly; although its small magazine size and sparse ammunition drops make accuracy of paramount importance. * The primary fire is powerful enough to kill nearly every creature regardless of where the shot hits, so simply focus on hitting the creature. The Contact Beam is highly effective against Brutes as a single shot behind the Brute is capable of slicing an arm off. If the player manages to fully upgrade their Contact Beam's damage, a single shot can even instantly kill a Brute (except on Impossible mode). The secondary fire is best used when the player is surrounded or cornered by Necromorphs, as it can knock them back and buy time for an escape. It should be noted that this should be used primarily as a means of creating breathing room between you and your enemies. it should not be employed at a means of damaging enemies, as damage from the blast is negligable. * The Contact Beam's primary fire does not travel through multiple enemies and it should be focused at one at a time. This makes it a poor weapon for crowd control, so consider switching to a different weapon if you are swarmed by a large number of enemies. * Ammunition comes very sparsely across the game, where a single pack of Contact Energy only has enough charge to power one shot. Packs can only hold four shots before more inventory space is used. * On Impossible difficulty, the Contact Beam's effectiveness is quite limited. Without upgrades, it can take two shots to kill a simple Slasher. Given it's nature as a single shot weapon and its relatively useless secondary function, it is advisable to either ignore this weapon completely in favour of other weapons, or to immediately upgrade it in order to make it useful. Again, it's low inventory capacity, slow initial charge time, and low damage can make this weapon more of a liability than an asset on Impossible diffculty. Appearances Dead Space Dead Space Extraction Trivia *The Contact Beam is likely lightweight and easy to handle as shown by Nathan McNeill, at the end of Chapter 10 in Dead Space: Extraction, who fights back Necromorphs with only one hand, the other severed at the elbow after being impaled by the Spider on the Ishimura's hull.